MOSCOW, May 29. /TASS/. Security services should deal with the email from Switzerland reporting a bomb planted onboard the Ryanair flight, which made an emergency landing in Minsk, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Saturday.
"I cannot answer that question. We are talking about the threat of a terrorist act, the threat of a blast, so the issue is the special services’ job. I cannot elaborate on this," he said.
When asked whether Russian special services would investigate the letter, Peskov said, "I cannot answer that."
On Wednesday, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko at a meeting with lawmakers, members of the constitution commission and public officials said that the bomb threat targeting the Ryanair flight had come from Switzerland.
Later, the Swiss email provider Proton Technologies AG told TASS that the email was sent after the plane was diverted to Belarus.
"We haven’t seen credible evidence that the Belarusian claims are true," the statement noted.
A passenger jet belonging to Ryanair, an Irish low-cost airline, performing a flight from Athens to Vilnius on May 23 was forced to make an emergency landing at Minsk International Airport after a bomb threat on board the plane had been reported. The quick reaction alert crew of a MiG-29 fighter jet was dispatched to escort the airliner.
A subsequent search after the aircraft had touched down in the Belarusian capital failed to find any information confirming the bomb scare. The Belarusian Investigative Committee opened a criminal probe into a deliberately false bomb threat message.
Minsk specified that Roman Protasevich, wanted in Belarus as a co-founder of the Nexta Telegram channel deemed extremist, had been among the flight’s passengers. He was taken into custody by law enforcement agents. On Sunday evening, the plane took off from Minsk airport and landed in Vilnius later in the day.